“1604-5, March 15. Baptized Felicity, d. of John Barnes, vagarant.”—Stepney.
“1590, July 5. Baptized Felycyte Harris.”—Cranbrook.
Comfort has a pleasant atmosphere about it, and many a parent was tempted to the use of it. It lingered longer than many of its rivals. Comfort Farren’s epitaph may be seen on the floor of Tewkesbury Abbey:
“Comfort, wife of Abraham Farren, gent., of this Corporation, died August 24, 1720.”
Again, in Dymock Church we find:
“Comfort, wife to William Davis, died 14 June, 1775, aged 78 years.
“Comfort, their daughter, died 9 Feb., 1760, aged 24 years.”
Nearly 150 years before this, however, Comfort Starr was a name not unknown to the more heated zealots of the Puritan party. He was a native of Ashford, in Kent, and after various restless shiftings as a minister, Carlisle being his head-quarters for a time, went to New Plymouth in the Mayflower, in 1620. There he became fellow of Harvard College, but returned to England eventually, and died at Lewes in his eighty-seventh year.
Perhaps the most interesting and popular of the grace names was “Repentance.” In a “new interlude” of the Reformation, entitled the “Life and Repentance of Marie Magdalene,” and published in 1567, one of the chief characters was “Repentance.” At the same time Repentance came into font use, and, odd as it may sound, bade fair to become a permanently recognized name in England:
“1583, Dec. 8. Married William Arnolde and Repentance Pownoll.”—Cant. Cath.